


Death Sentence

by theonlywaterintheforest



Series: The Perpetual Prison [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Backstory, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 08:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1597658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonlywaterintheforest/pseuds/theonlywaterintheforest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Qori Roqri was just like River Song in many ways. They were both ruthless, brazen, and unpredictable. </p><p>But even River wouldn't bet that carelessly on a poker hand like that.</p><p> </p><p>(Backstory ficlet for an upcoming fic, "The Perpetual Prison")</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death Sentence

River Song raised an eyebrow to a man seated directly beside her, a pale green humanoid with two pale yellow tusks jutting out of the sides of his gently smiling mouth. He seemed confident, but his eyes gave him away. He was nervous.

He was bluffing.

River reached down to a pocket on her belt for a small computer. She pressed a few buttons before tossing the computer into the center of the table, which was full of vials of deep black anti-venoms, glittering copper coins, rolls of dragon leathers, piles of small jewels, and keys to various spaceships. "The deeds to my 30,000 acre tysoan farm on Yasan."

A silence rippled over the table. Three of the players still with cards in their hands all shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. A man with four eyes two chairs to her left broke the silence with a hiss. "What grade?"

"The highest."

"How many birds?" 

"About a thousand."

He looked down toward the table, then ceremoniously tossed the cards in his hands over his right shoulder. This was the way you folded your hand in Nousixian Poker, a game with eight cards and eight draws before everyone throws in one last bet. They had just drawn their eighth cards. River was confident enough in her hand to bet the farm she won in a particularly stellar hand a few years back.

The next man cooly looked down at his hand and just as cooly looked up. He was impeccably dressed—almost too nicely for the crowd he was mingling with—with an expensive dinner jacket, blood red waist coat and a beautiful gold pocketwatch. He then lifted his right hip and fiddled for something in his pocket. He soon opened his closed fist over the table, exposing a small, perfect metal cube. He placed it in the pile. "Keys to my manor, the only residence on Lenien Theta." 

"The only manor because you destroyed the other four."

Everyone's heads turned to the woman sitting two seats to River's right. She was tall and slender and languid in her movements, but still strict looking with the severe cuts in her straight black hair and fire in her long, narrow eyes. Her light pink skin flushed a little darker as the small antennae near her ears straightened. They had been lazily moving of their own accord until she confronted the man across the table. 

Qori Roqri was an old friend of River's, having been her eighth attorney after firing the first seven for being inadequate. Qori was a perfect fit; she was ruthless, intimidating, brash, and thorough. She was known throughout the galaxy for winning nearly every case that came her way, almost all through unconventional means. River first used her expertise when she stripped naked in front of a few religious officials on Razok after they had called her a lecherous woman for wearing tight clothes. Even though it was a crime punishable by death to offend a member of the clergy, Qori stopped River's beheading by pointing out that full public nudity was not on the original list of offenses. Gratuitous skin—defined with measurements like a full leg or a bare stomach—was an offense, but full nudity was never listed.

"Each were destroyed because they were deemed unsafe by safety officials from the moon's planet," he said with confidence.

"Because you paid them off," Qori said simply and smirked.

He sputtered, spit flying onto the table. "How dare you insult me! I'll get you for slander, you know!" the large man bellowed, sweat starting to form around his high hairline. "Do you know who I am?"

Qori calmly reached into her left trouser pocket, pulling out a thin piece of clear glass. She tossed it to the open space before him, and he bent over to eye the thin etching on the card. He stiffened. "Oh."

"Representative for the families you tossed into the streets. Hello."

He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, which caused River to slink back into hers. She was enjoying this. She loved it when seemingly unpowerful people could bring the powerful ones to their knees. 

"You should be getting a court order in a couple of days. In the meantime, I wouldn't go betting your estate. You might need that money," Qori said with an air of professionalism on her words. He sighed, and tossed his cards over his right shoulder. 

Qori smirked as she thumbed her own cards up to get a glance before she made her bet. River absentmindedly tapped her long red nails on the jade-colored fabric of the table. It was just Qori and the tusked man to her right to put in their final bets. She was certain the tusked man would fold; she had made her bet to scare him into folding. But River didn't know what Qori would do, even though she had been playing the occasional game with the Paquoan for a couple years now. She often took high risk bets, but since she knew River too well she may fold to avoid losing something precious; after all, that tysoan farm she bet was extremely valuable, and a bet that large typically meant she had a fairly good hand.

Qori suddenly rose to her feet, and River was knocked out of her daze. _No, she couldn't—_

"All in." 

River was now acutely aware of the audience that had been watching the round unfold. A few people gasped, and she knew it wasn't from her eight tablemates, because they were too stunned to say anything. The tusked man quickly tossed his cards over his shoulder as the exclamations rumbled in the crowd. It was then she heard someone say, "Go get the dagger!"

The people of Nousix take their poker very seriously. It's their number one pastime. People play it in their homes and in their streets, but more serious gamblers gather in halls, like the one River was in. A lot of people come to observe, going from table to table and watching the games play out. They know they'll see some people lose possessions, but they secretly hope for something more drastic: watching someone lose their life savings or a precious family artifact. River was sure that the crowd formed around their table around the time she put down her deeds. 

However, what Nousixians hope for most is when someone goes all in. It's not like poker back on Earth where all in means "all of the chips on the table". On Nousix it means _everything,_ including your life. If someone goes all in and loses, the victor owns that person's life. This means that you could acquire a slave or you could murder them on the spot. Nousixians prefer the latter, which is where the dagger comes into play. 

River glared across the table to the pink woman, standing tall and proud with her arms crossed at her chest, as the manager of the hall showed up at the side of the table, carrying a ruby-encrusted dagger on a similarly red pillow. "I hear someone went all in." River stayed silent in her frustration, her eyes not leaving the woman she considered a friend. She was an idiot, and River planned on letting her know it, no matter the outcome. 

The whispers got louder around her. She could hear chairs scraping on the wooden floor as players at other tables interrupted their round so they could see the final result of this much more exciting game. 

"As the person who went all in, you show your cards first," the manager spoke to Qori. She hesitated for a second, sending a cold glare to River, and then slowly flipped over the cards in front of her one-by-one. A five card straight in the orange suit. In Nousixian Poker, there are five suits in different colors, red ranking the highest and blue ranking the lowest. She had the second highest suit. The crowd collectively held their breath. It was a pretty good hand.

River stared at her opponent's cards for a second, her hearts beating wildly against her ribs. It was only when an impatient spectator shouted "C'mon!" that she slowly flipped the cards over one at a time. By the third card, people were gasping. By the fifth, everyone was screaming. By the eighth card, everyone was chanting.

"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"

Qori held her hand to her mouth as she stared at River's cards. She too had a five card straight. But hers was red. River won. 

"No," Qori finally gasped from behind her hand. "Riv, you...you won't, right?"

The manager bowed beside River as he held out the pillow containing the dagger. River eyed the beautiful metal weapon for a second, but only a second, before she wrapped her fingers one by one around the jeweled handle. Qori tried to back up, but fell off the edge of the raised platform, crashing onto the floor below. 

"River, please, you can't!"

The chanting intensified as River slowly walked off the platform and around to Qori, who was trying to crawl backward away from the victor. "River, please! _PLEASE!_ "

As the Paquoan reached the ring of spectators, someone used their foot to push her shoulder, sending her sliding back toward the center. Her hand had gone out from beneath her, sending her head crashing into the hard wood with a vicious _crack_. She blinked wildly as if she was trying to regain her vision. "T-think of all the good I've done for you! I've saved your life! Several times! Why can't you save mine just this ONCE—"

River had darted toward the ground, leaning over the pink woman and positioning the dagger dangerously close to her throat. The crowd cheered from around them. Qori gasped and tried to swallow gently for fear that the dagger would puncture her skin if she gulped too deeply. 

River slowly leaned in so her lips were near Qori Roqri's ear. "You fool."

Qori was so scared she couldn't find the words to respond. She just whimpered. 

"Why would you bet your life on a poker game?" she whispered.

"I...I wanted him to fold. A-and I was sure I was going to beat you. I t-thought I'd win," the Paquoan whispered back. 

"Did you," River said with velvet on her voice. "What made you so _sure_ you were going to win? That wasn't exactly the best hand."

"I-I've seen you bet the farm before with mediocre hands. And I thought,"— _gulp_ —" _thought_ you would be merciful.

"Riv...River...we're friends. You wouldn't...would you?"

River was silent for a second as she softly pressed the dagger to Qori's throat. Not hard enough to puncture the skin. Just enough so she felt it.

"You know I've killed before. I've been trained to kill." 

Qori didn't respond to that. She just breathed in deeply. 

"They _want_ me to kill you. Listen to them." She bit the shell of Qori's ear roughly, but Qori knew that if she moved, the dagger was going into her neck. She moaned in fear. 

"I know."

"Do you think they'll let me back in here if I don't kill you? I like this place. I come here often. You know that."

"I know," she repeated. River could feel her start to tremble. If it took her this long to tremble, she had good nerves. River would give her that.

" _You_ come here often. If I let you live, you'll never be able to come back here again."

"I-I know."

River laughed lightly against the woman's ear. Qori violently trembled beneath River, then gasped. River was sure that she had just been pricked by the sharp tip of the dagger. River lifted her face and saw a small trickle of blood run down her soft pink skin. The screaming around them intensified. 

River pulled herself up into a more seated position and laughed again, a little louder this time, as she twirled the dagger in her fingers. 

"What to do..." 

The Paquoan jammed her eyes shut, and River saw tears start to leak out of the edges. "Please, please...I'll do anything you want me to, _anything_ you ever ask me to, please just—"

The sound of loud _thud_ caused Qori to throw her eyes open. River no longer had the dagger in her hands. She had jammed it into the wooden floor beside her. The crowd went into an uproar as Qori let out a cry of shock and relief. She tried to sputter out a sea of thanks, resulting only in hoarse noises. "You _idiot_ ," River growled before silencing the stammering woman beneath her with a rough, bruising kiss on the lips. She then backhanded Qori across the face with all the force she had. "You absolute _idiot_."

* * *

Qori Roqri was sitting at her desk, typing away at the computer built into the surface. She brought up recent sentencing results from a menu and scrolled through the day's hearings. When she reached what she needed, she gasped.

"They've sentenced you to eight years?! _Eight years_?! This is unheard of!" she cried. "How did they get you for _eight years_?!"

"Listen," the holographic face displayed over her desk interrupted. "I know that getting me out of prison is important and all—"

Qori let out a _hmph!_ as she continued to eye the list of charges. 

"—but before you go around trying to release me, you need to go looking for the TARDIS." 

She looked up from her screen and slowly turned to the hologram. "What?"

"Nothing is more important than looking for the TARDIS," the hologram of River hissed. "We need to find it and get it out of here. I don't want to think about what they'll do to the TARDIS once they find it."

She slowly removed her glasses. "I thought you said it had a chameleon circuit. They shouldn't be able to find it."

"Yes, but we still have to find it. We will...need it in the future."

Her glasses dropped with a loud _tink!_ to the glass desk. She realized her mouth was agape. "We are not doing what I think you're suggesting."

"Qor, we _have to_ get the Doctor out of here."

"We do not have to do _anything._ "

"I remember you saying— _promising_ —a few years back that you'd do _anything_ I ever asked you to do," River taunted.

There it was. She had been wondering when it was going to happen. When she was going to bring _that_ up. 

After she hung up with River, she prepared herself for a break in. She really didn't feel like breaking into the highest security prison in the galaxy, but it didn't look like she had a choice, did she?


End file.
